I acknowledge that the sword is symbolic as the heart of budo, but if we are talking battlefield engagement, first the spear and then a long line of missile casters have been outperforming the sword for literally thousands of years.

400,00 year old fire hardened sticks (aka spears) are known.

"In my opinion, the time of spreading aikido to the world is finished; now we have to focus on quality." Yamada Yoshimitsu